<p>My son went to plain vanilla summer camp for years. Before each summer once he hit high school, I tried to encourage him to do something “serious” instead. I confess that, in addition to personal enrichment, I had college admissions in mind. Although he pursues his academics and his EC interests with intensity during the school year, he resisted my suggestions. He wanted to spend the summers at the camp he loves with friends he loves, and that is what he did. (Full disclosure: Last summer he did participate in a relatively brief but highly selective program in one of his areas of interest after camp.) </p>
<p>Camp was even the subject of one of his college essays, and he got into his SCEA school. The relative lack of “important” summer pursuits definitely did not torpedo his application. So I now believe that you don’t absolutely have to spend your summers engaged in "serious” pursuits in order to be accepted to highly selective schools. (I am not, BTW, bashing such pursuits. I think they’re a fantastic idea for the student who is motivated to do them.)</p>